League of Legends patch 4.5 proposed Pantheon tweaks

Pantheon players, prepare to rage. Yesterday, Riot Games' SmashGizmo detailed some potential probable changes being made to Pantheon in the next League of Legends update, patch 4.5.

"Pantheon's one of the biggest benefactors we've seen from the recent spirit stone changes, and while we don't innately dislike him as a jungler, we would like to both add some options for his opponents against his ganks and smooth out his historically lopsided power curve a bit," SmashGizmo explained.

Changes? I meant nerfs. And here they are:

Passive - Aegis Protection

Now will block the attack of any siege minion or large jungle monster instead of a damage value based on his character level

W - Aegis of Zeonia

Stun duration changed to 0.5/0.75/1/1.25/1.5 from 1 at all ranks

R - Grand Skyfall

Channel time reduced to 0.5 from 2

Landing time (after circle appears) increased to 2 from 1.5

Cast range reduced to 2000/2500/3000 from 5500 at all ranks

Cooldown reduced to 150/125/100 from 150/135/120

Here's the explanation for the changes:

The passive changes are a straightforward modernization of the ability to make it reliably block the minions and monsters that Pantheon wants it to block.

W's changes are aimed at power curve adjustment and I will be monitoring how much this makes his early ganks less brutal to weigh the gains vs. pain to Pantheon players.

R's changes are a bit larger in scope and are trying to address a wider breadth of problems. The range reduction is there to allow opponents to ward more effectively versus jungle Pantheon, while the landing time increase is there to give opponents more time to react to an incoming Pantheon gank. The two together may be hurting Pantheon's level 6 ganks too much, but I tend to go overboard with my initial changes and then tone it back with iterations when I get a better sense of what changes are actually accomplishing. The channel time reduction, on the other hand, is aimed at addressing Pantheon's ult usability in teamfights and skirmishes. I'm hoping that this will give Pantheon some stronger options when using his ult more reactively, such as being able to escape dicey situations in enemy territory or quickly repositioning mid-teamfight. With this larger emphasis on mid-fight usability from his ult, I also wanted to reduce the late game cooldown so that he will realistically have it as a play making tool in almost every late game fight.

First off, I'm loving the reduction in channel time. It reminds me of old Pantheon when there was no channeling. But the reduction in range simply kills his ganking ability. As SmashGizmo noted, these are initial changes, so it's possible they could increase them later on. I don't mind a scaling range, but 2,000 at level 6 feels way too small for "Grand" Skyfall. It's more like baby jump.

The Pantheon changes are currently live on the PBE so if you've got a beta account you can try them out for yourself. Again, the tweaks are subject to change so make sure you give Riot your feedback.

Check out some of the other proposed changes for League of Legends patch 4.5: